Episode 5- Razzle Dazzle 'Em
The party continues to investigate the missing townsfolk, all of whom vanished after winning a bar fight. At the start of the episode, various party members attempt to goad patrons into a fight with Yarfik. The perfect opportunity seems to fall in their lap with local drunk Terry shouts his disgust at the presence of Olash. Terry's words are so unsettling that Olash is reduced to tears, prompting Cassian to knock out Terry with the butt of his rapier. While Olash drinks her sorrows, Cassian attempts again to rile the bar patrons into a fight with the famous "Horse Puncher." When nobody appears to be interested, Aaeowyn makes a scene as though Cassian and Yarfik are about to fight. The two take the cue and engage in a staged fight. After some back and forth, aided by Aaeowyn's use of minor illusions to spice things up, Cassian takes the fall and leaves Yarfik as the apparent victor. (Following the fight Yarfik rolled a natural 1 while, for reasons known only to himself, attempting to sleight of hand a coin into Cassian's pocket.) Following the "fight" Yarfik is approached by a mysterious cloaked figure calling himself Palid. He buys Yarfik an ale and proceeds to ask a series of questions, ranging from how Yarfik learned to fight to details about his childhood. Palid eventually offers Yarfik the chance to make a little money for fighting in front of a crowd. Figuring that this is the man the party is looking for, Yarfik agrees and goes with Palid. Yarfik gives his family ring to Aaeowyn so that he can be tracked by a temple elder in an emergency, while Cassian attempting to sneakily follow the pair. Palid leads Yarfik to the outhouses near the tavern. Once they arrive, Palid opens the door to an outhouse, produces a wand, creates a portal, and pushes Yarfik through it. Palid follows through the portal. Cassian attempts to leap through the portal after them, but it closes and he instead lands in the outhouse. The other two arrive, and Aaeowyn casts "detect magic" to confirm that there was indeed magic of some kind used in the outhouse. She also realizes that she no longer has Yarfik's ring, and that Palid must have pickpocketed off her. Yarfik continues to follow Palid on the other side of the portal, having no idea that his friends can't follow him. Not knowing how to follow their friend, they decide to go to the mayor for any possible lead, given what they now know. But first Cassian decides to go back to the tavern and interrogate Terry, on the hunch that he might have been a plant to start a fight and be somehow in on the whole thing. Terry appears to have absolutely no idea who Palid is, and thus proves a dead end. Not wanting Terry to think he got off easy, Olash intimidates him so severely that he visibly pees himself (which Aaeowyn highlights with a minor illusion spotlight). Cassian manages to get a possible lead on some help after questioning a bar patron, who points him to local ORE member Fizzweeve as the best option to get magical assistance in town. Also he was left with the impression that Cassian wanted to bang his sister.